Girl Scouts Ella Payer, Kate Della Ratta, Maddie Yuhasz and Sydney Locke carry boxes of donations for Franklin Community Center as part of the "Party It Forward," an initiative Payer began when she had her friends donate to the center instead of buying her birthday gifts.
(ERICA MILLER/emiller@saratogian.com)

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- When Ella Payer's 12th birthday came around in January, she naturally thought about presents. But this year, she thought about giving rather than receiving them.

She asked her friends to bring donations to Franklin Community Center instead of bringing gifts to her, creating a whole new party concept the center is pleased to support: the Celebrations Program.

Payer had 40 people donate for her party.

"I thought, I'm 12; I've already gotten a lot of presents," Payer said. "By asking for donations for the center instead of gifts bought for me, I could help people get what they really needed. It felt so good."

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Getting people what they need is an ongoing challenge for the center, whose "wish list" changes constantly. When Payer and her friends came to Bo Goliber, the center's coordinator of development and volunteers, Goliber sat down with them and helped them figure out how to go about their project.

"We had so much fun," Goliber said. "I told them about our wish list and what we needed. We have so little storage, we can't take in a lot of large toys year-round. And we need to constantly replenish the food and personal care items."

Payer took over the program, becoming FCC's junior ambassador. The sixth-grader ensured links to the vital wish list were on the center's website, Facebook and Instagram. Donors can check the list online, or party-givers can print it out to enclose with invitations.

Being year-round, the program will help spread out donation times, unlike during the winter holidays, when more people are likely to give all at once.

Payer and other party hosts will greet donors at the door when people come to drop off items. The kids also will organize the donations.

Each donor to the party program will receive a little gift as well: a $5 gift card to Plum Dandy.

Payer's Girl Scout troop, Cadettes 3618, hosted the second party. She and three friends carried in boxes of food, toys and art kits. Unloading everything onto a table, the girls sorted things into piles. On one side of the table went cracker-and-cheese packets, granola bars, pudding cups and potato chips -- all intended as snacks for the students in FCC's Project Lift after-school program. On the other side, balls, trucks, finger paint, sand art and Legos were stacked up, also for Project Lift.

Payer and her friends have been scouts since they were Daisies in kindergarten. Now, the girls have grown to enjoy community service projects more than craft activities, said their leaders, Mary Yuhasz and Tracy Locke.

"They ask us to do community service," Locke said.

Goliber said Franklin Community Center is seeing an increase in young people who want to give back. Jaime Williams, associate director at the center, said volunteers giving their time and doing needed tasks at the center are as important as donors.

"I believe this is a great way for kids to help out while having a good time," Payer said.